Technical Field
This application relates to using augmented reality in data storage management.
Description of Related Art
Computer systems may include different resources used by one or more host processors. Resources and host processors in a computer system may be interconnected by one or more communication connections. These resources may include, for example, data storage devices such as those included in the data storage systems manufactured by EMC Corporation. These data storage systems may be coupled to one or more servers or host processors and provide storage services to each host processor. Multiple data storage systems from one or more different vendors may be connected and may provide common data storage for one or more host processors in a computer system.
A host processor may perform a variety of data processing tasks and operations using the data storage system. For example, a host processor may perform basic system I/O operations in connection with data requests, such as data read and write operations.
Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage device containing a plurality of host interface units, disk drives, and disk interface units. The host systems access the storage device through a plurality of channels provided therewith. Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage device and the storage device provides data to the host systems also through the channels. The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage device directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units. The logical disk units may or may not correspond to the actual disk drives. Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage device unit allows the host systems to share data in the device. In order to facilitate sharing of the data on the device, additional software on the data storage systems may also be used. In a common implementation, a Storage Area Network (SAN) is used to connect computing devices with a large number of storage devices. Management and modeling programs may be used to manage these complex computing environments, which may be, include, or be included in a data center.
A data center refers to processing functionality for performing one or more prescribed processing tasks. In one common application, for example, a provider may use a data center to implement any kind of network-accessible service (such as an Email service, search service, and so on). In some cases, the provider may use a specially designed computer room within a general purpose facility to implement the data center. For a particularly large-scale service, the provider may devote one or more separate facilities to implement the data center.
Recent developments in integration technology have opened the way for the spread of various portable devices such as mobile phones and portable game players.
In particular, mobile phones are no longer only tools for telecommunications but are also tools for providing a variety of functions such as a digital camera function.
Virtual reality is one of the relatively new information technology paradigms that can allow people to experience various situations that they will never experience in real life due to some spatial and physical restrictions, by creating a computer-based artificial environment that interactively responds to the human sensory system.
Augmented reality, which is the term derived from terminology regarding virtual environment and virtual reality, is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world images and virtual-world images such as computer graphic images. Real world information may include information that is not necessarily needed by users or may lack information that is needed by users. In a virtual environment created by a computer, such unnecessary information can be simplified or can be made invisible, and information can be added. In other words, augmented reality systems combine a real environment with virtual objects, thereby effectively interacting with users in real time.
Augmented reality has been widely used in various fields of application such as the entertainment field and the newscast field. We often see TV weather broadcasts where the forecaster appears in front of a weather chart that keeps changing naturally. In reality, the forecaster stands in front of a blue screen, and a virtual studio environment is established based on computer-generated virtual images, thereby realizing augmented reality.